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I left Pat’s house at around 3am and made it home by a little after 8am shaving a full two hours off of the Google estimated drive time. During the drive I listed to “Automate This” an unremarkable book on the importance of algorithms in the modern world. The periodic asides into the personalities involved didn’t justify it’s length and often the author sounded like he was waving a magic wand labeled “computers”.

This trip represented my last lark, my last time when I’d just kind of take a trip for the hell of it, at least for a bit. The money-time equation has tilted back toward time being the valuable resource.

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Yesterday evening we dropped 10 lbs of short ribs into the water oven and then went to sleep. Today, Pat and I went to the Rochester Museum and Science Center and it was surprisingly good. I purchased a student pass and reached for my ID but the teller stopped me saying “you look honest”. Pat and I took our time and learned about local… things and I learned that Pat was thinking of becoming a falconer. This sounded lame until I learned that after raising a falcon and receiving several more years of training Pat could capture and train owls. F-ing owls. How bad ass is that? I’d totally train burrowing owls and just have this team of them scurry across the ground and attack people’s ankles.

The museum had a nice collection of displays centered around the last ice age and fought the good fight on evolution and the timescales of paleontology. After the museum, Pat and I stopped at a butcher shop and he talked about arranging some expensive cut of meat to be available for him for Thanksgiving. I didn’t follow most of the conversation except for the line “and then you hold its still-beating heart” was said.

Clara returned home and we had the spare ribs. For $2.00 a lb plus spicing and electricity, those spare ribs may be the best flavor per dollar ratio food I’ve ever had.

That evening, Pat and I took a long walk around Rochester of about four miles. Rochester is a small big town rather than a big small town and it had all the trappings of a major city but simply smaller. Parking everywhere cost about $1.00 and there was a tiny tiny arts and culture district. It seemed just large enough that it would take one a full day to become familiar with it.

We had fourth meal at a diner and returned to Pat’s. We talked, and not wanting to miss an engagement tomorrow evening, I left for home.

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Pat and I stayed up late enough that we were able to drop Clara off at work at 5am. She’s in her residency and her standard shift is at least 12 hours. Pat and I retired and when our day started around the crack of 2pm we went to the largest Wegman’s in North America. Wegman’s home base is in Rochester and the store is quite nice. We purchased seasoned chicken breasts in plastic vacuum packs with the idea that we could save a vacuum step. They had artisanal cheeses and being a sucker for such things, acquire the makings of a lovely cheese plate.

Returning to Pat’s house, the rig was brought to temperature and the food simply dropped in. The elegance of the water bath as a cooking method tickles my love of parsimony. There is also a trade off in precision when cooking via sous vide. One trades thermal precision for temporal freedom. The cook times with sous vide are often 30 minute windows as opposed to the 60 second window during which a steak can go from caramelized to burnt.

We talked, tweaked, salivated and picked up Clara. She was concerned that we’d left the rig running while we were out but once we served dinner all objections dropped. The chicken was either the best or the second best chicken I’ve had in my life, only possibly being rivaled by a plate from The Brothers’ Moon in Pennington where I received two chicken tenderloin pieces that clocked in at $28.00. This plate of broccoli, pork tenderloin, and chicken cost about $6.00 including the power to run the device. Clara was equally pleased and the rig joined the cats as Pat and Clara’s newest family proxies.

That evening Pat and I walked around the High Falls area of Rochester and I took pictures.

Favorite Rochester Bridge

This was my favorite bridge shot.  The symmetry is delicious.

 

White Balance Blend

Rarely do I like clashing white balances.  This is an exception.

Just Water

Pools of light.